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  • Morlatton Village, in Berks County, is an early Swedish settlement begun in the early 1700’s. Structures constructed slightly later in the 1760s are also part of the village. During colonial times, the area became a center of commerce for the region as a routing center for refined iron from Pennsylvania’s earliest furnaces and for grains from the Oley Valley heading downriver to Philadelphia. Morlatton’s importance grew as roads leading to Tulpehocken, Oley, Reading, and Philadelphia all intersected in this area.

    Mouns Jones House (1716)
    Built by early Swedish settler Mouns Jones and his family, the house is the oldest documented dwelling in Berks County and considered to be the oldest extant structure ever built in the county. It is a two-and-a-half story sandstone structure containing two chimneys. The corner chimney is derived from Swedish architectural traditions.

    Bridge Keepers House (1730 or 1830)
    The Bridge Keepers house is a one-and-a-half story sandstone structure with a single interior chimney. It is a one room building with a relatively large, open attic space. The Bridge Keepers House is adjacent to the Mouns Jones House on the banks of the Schuylkill River.

    George Douglass Mansion (1763)
    The George Douglass Mansion is two-and-a-half story mansion that was one of the first full-blown Georgian structures in the region. The building is a central passage, double pile, Georgian-type structure with five bays. The exterior consists of fine cut sand-stone, a plaster cove cornice, and evidence of a pent roof. The interior of the building is currently under restoration.

    White Horse Inn (circa 1762)
    The White Horse Inn is of Georgian Style, and its principle façade is constructed of dressed sandstone. Built around 1727 by Marcus Huling and later enlarged by George Douglass, the building served as a tavern during colonial times. The White Horse has undergone significant restoration since. Today, the building is fully restored, including the addition of an adjoining kitchen.

  • Here is a look at the Rex Covered Bridge, a historic wooden covered bridge located in North Whitehall Township in Lehigh County. It is a 150-foot-long (46 m), Burr Truss bridge, constructed in 1858. It has narrow horizontal siding and a gable roof. It crosses Jordan Creek. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

  • Tuscarora State Park sits in a valley north of Blue Mountain near coal mining regions of Pennsylvania. It is a lovely park, but one which has serious problems in terms of ADA access, especially to the lake and beach.

    I passed this farm on my way to my next location.

    It was then on to Beltzville State Park to view a covered bridge I only recently realized was there.

    The Harrity Covered Bridge.
    The dam is run by the Army Corps of Engineers.
  • Here are my photos from this year’s Roaring Creek Drive Through in Weiser State Forest in Columbia County in October. It was a good day for Autumn color.

    While in the area, I also stopped to finally photograph the covered bridge at Knoebels Grove and the Parr’s Mill Covered Bridge, which was being renovated the last time I stopped by.

    Knoebels Grove Covered Bridge
    Parr’s Mill Covered Bridge

  • I made my way into Lycoming County back in September. Before we head there, here are some remaining shots of Sullivan County, featuring the town of Muncy Valley. This particular house, on a sharp turn on Route 42, is always decked out with lots of flowers, in season.

    The view from the firehouse across the road.

    I travelled into Lycoming County on this trip because I specifically wanted to see Rose Valley Lake, which is known as a birding area. The lake is a reservoir that covers 389 acres (1.57 km2) in Gamble Township. The three-hundred-and-sixty-acre artificial lake is owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and was given its name, “Rose Valley Lake,” in May 1973 by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, following approval by the commonwealth’s Geographic Names Committee. Created by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, via the construction of a twenty-five-foot-high, four-hundred-and-ten-foot-long earthen dam on Mill Creek in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Rose Valley Lake is a three-hundred-and-sixty-acre artificial body of water. The most common game species of fish in the lake are largemouth bass, bluegill, black crappie, muskellunge, yellow perch, chain pickerel, pumpkinseed and walleye.

    The area around the lake is quite scenic.
    A small church in Lycoming County.
    A valley farm.
    Another interesting old church.
    Mt. Zion Lutheran Church. A lot of ancestors and relatives are buried here.
    Eating lunch at the Lairdsville Cornerstone Restaurant.
    An interesting player piano.
    And an old stove.

    Finally, the Lairdsville Covered Bridge is a wooden covered bridge over Little Muncy Creek in Moreland Township, Lycoming County. It was built in 1888 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It is also known as the Frazier Covered Bridge. The window with the exposed beams is a unique feature.

  • On my way to Sullivan County, I took the opportunity to visit a few covered bridges that I had not visited before or failed to photograph for the blog. Outside of Allentown, I took a look at the Bogert Covered Bridge. This area was busy on a sunny Monday holiday, so I took a few photos and got the neck out of there. Bogert Covered Bridge is a wooden covered bridge is a 145-foot-long (44 m), Burr Truss bridge, that was constructed in 1841. It has vertical plank siding and a gable roof. It was restored by the Allentown Parks Department

    Moving on to Columbia County, the Sam Eckman Covered Bridge was the first of three that I know that I have seen before. The bridge is a wooden covered bridge located at Greenwood Township and Pine Township. It is a 65.1-foot-long (19.8 m), Warren Truss bridge constructed in 1876. It crosses Little Fishing Creek. It is one of the 28 historic covered bridges in Columbia and Montour Counties. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

    This distinctive farm is nearby.
    A barn I saw on my travels. It has some notable stars, which look like they are for sale.

    Next was the Jud Christian Covered Bridge, a wooden covered bridge located at Jackson Township and Pine Township. It is a 63-foot-long (19 m), Queen post truss bridge constructed in 1876. It crosses the Little Fishing Creek. It was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. I remember some interesting cattle near this bridge when I visited before, but, sadly, they were no here on this day.

    Little Fishing Creek.
    An adjacent farm with some really neat buildings.

    The diminutive Shoemaker Covered Bridge is another wooden covered bridge located at Pine Township. It was the lone new-to-me bridge in this bunch. is a 49-foot-long (15 m), Queen Post Truss bridge constructed in 1881. It crosses West Branch Run and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is all decked out for a picnic. It might be privately owned but is not posted.

    Finally, the Wagner Covered Bridge is one of the relocated covered bridges in Pennsylvania. It currently sits near the entrance to a housing development. The Wagner Covered Bridge is a wooden covered bridge that was originally built in Locust Township. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The bridge was dismantled on March 23, 1981, and the pieces stored at Knoebels Amusement Resort until it was rebuilt at its current location in Hemlock Township. When built in 1856, this historic structure was a 56.5-foot-long (17.2 m), Queen Post Truss bridge with a tarred metal roof. It originally crossed the North Branch of Roaring Creek. When I first saw it years ago, it was covered in graffiti. It is looking much better today.

  • The town of Forksville is not far from World’s End State Park. It features the Forksville Covered Bridge, a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek. It was built in 1850 and is 152 feet 11 inches (46.61 m) in length. The bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Forksville bridge is obviously named for the borough it is in, which in turn is named for its location at the confluence or “forks” of the Little Loyalsock and Loyalsock Creeks. The Forksville bridge is a Burr arch truss type, with a load-bearing arch sandwiching multiple vertical king posts, for strength and rigidity. The building of the Forksville bridge was supervised by the 18-year-old Sadler Rogers, who used his hand-carved model of the structure. It served as the site of a stream gauge from 1908 to 1913 and is still an official Pennsylvania state highway bridge. The bridge was restored in 1970 and 2004 and is still in use.

    The post office and a look around the town.
    Eating lunch at the Forskville Inn and Tavern.
    Plenty of taxidermy to see here.

    Also in Sullivan County is the Hillsgrove Covered Bridge, a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek in Hillsgrove Township. It was built circa 1850 and is 186 feet (56.7 m) long. In 1973, it became the first covered bridge in the county to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge is named for the township and nearby village of Hillsgrove, and is also known as Rinkers Covered Bridge for an adjoining farm. It was built by Sadler Rodgers, who also constructed the nearby Forksville Covered Bridge in the same year, with a similar design. The bridge is the longest of three covered bridges remaining in Sullivan County, and served as a landing site for lumber rafts on the creek between 1870 and 1890. Restoration work was carried out in 1963, 1968, 2010, and again in 2012 after serious flood damage.

  • Travelling east over Route 154, turn north on Rock Run Road. You will soon come down to the Loyalsock Creek where you can cross via this interesting bridge.

    I had to sneak the Sonestown covered bridge in here as it was on my route that day. The Sonestown Covered Bridge is a covered bridge over Muncy Creek in Davidson Township, Sullivan County built around 1850. It is 110 ft (34 m) long and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1980. It is also known as the Davidson Covered Bridge. It was built to provide access to a grist mill which operated until the early 20th century.

    The Sonestown bridge is a Burr arch truss type with a load-bearing arch sandwiching multiple vertical king posts for strength and rigidity. The bridge construction is cruder than the other two surviving covered bridges in Sullivan County, with each Burr arch formed from six straight beams set at angles instead of a smooth curve. The bridge was repaired in 1969 and after flood damage in 1996, 2005, 2013, and 2020. It was also restored in 2001.

    The Sullivan County courthouse in Laporte, the county seat.
    I like the cardinal decor on this house in Laporte.
    Into the Loyalsock State Forest, we come to Dry Run Falls.
    There is a picnic area along Dry Run Road.
    As well as a Ranger Station.
    Best sign in the Forest. I’ve heard Shanerburg was a logging camp. If anyone knows anything about it, please comment.
  • Eagles Mere is a borough in Sullivan County with a population of 151 at the 2020 census (full time residents). Eagles Mere was laid out in 1877 and incorporated in 1899. The Eagles Mere Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Eagles Mere’s name literally means “the eagle’s lake”, the word “mere” being a poetic synonym of “lake”. The town has an extensive history of tourism, having been developed as a resort town and was once served by a narrow gauge railway. My family has visited the area since I was a child.

    Some of the summer sailboat fleet.
    The clubhouse at the lake with a swimming beach.
    St. John of the Wilderness Episcopal Church.
    The Eagles Mere Inn.

    One of the large Victorian style homes.

  • Major changes are on the way for this blog, including a revised layout and new photography style. I have sped up the pace of posts to get through remaining material that has been uploaded. These changes have, perhaps, been a long time coming.

    I started this blog in 2017 as a way to shine light on the positive aspects of rural Pennsylvania and to give people there hope and a feeling that they were valued and not alone. If successful, perhaps even boast outside interest or spending in the area.

    Unfortunately, it seems these efforts have been misguided. I can not in good conscience try to bolster people so mired in ignorance, bigotry, xenophobia, parochialism, fear and self loathing such that there are no depths to which they will not sink to lash out at others who have done them no harm.

    The last four years have been difficult. The present administration inherited a mess and did an outstanding job of lowering inflation, preventing a recession and has now been able to start lowering interest rates. Unemployment is low, GDP growth is good, and the price of gas has been coming down.

    The election will create changes that hurt the vast majority of Americans. The party that comes into power will continue its sole agenda of driving more and more wealth to the mega rich and large corporations that convert it into profits, rather than investment or wage support. Social Security, Medicare, the cost of living, healthcare, education, the environment, housing, wages and working conditions are all now at risk.

    These are not issues on which reasonable people can disagree. The president-elect is a convicted felon and has long and extensive history of fraud, sexual abuse and documented lying. He is a traitor who has done the very worst thing you can do in a democracy by trying to overturn a valid election by violence. He is not a Christian in any sense of the word, but a con man who is set only on his own self-preservation and enrichment. He has run a campaign of lies directed at demonizing marginalized groups while creating no constructive dialogue about policy or change. He will spend his time on the golf course while people behind the scenes set about dismantling America for profit. He is a narcissist, a sociopath, a compulsive liar, and evil personified. Oh, and he is also old and in poor health like someone else I know.

    But this is no longer about his character, it’s about yours if you support him. Millions of people will suffer, or even die, because of incoming policy changes. But I know the red county residents of this state don’t care about that. Let me tell them this, you are not safe because you are white. Everyone is a target, it’s just a matter of where you are on the list, and since you have shown yourselves to be gullible, ignorant and easily manipulated, you are now probably higher up on that list than you realize. You are not in the right income bracket to be of any interest to the incoming party.

    Prices will not go down, that’s not how that works. Deflation is only likely to occur in conjunction with a recession or other serious economic dislocation. Gas prices are controlled by the world-wide price of oil. Increased drilling will not have an effect anytime soon; throwing Ukraine under the bus might have a small impact. The US is already the top oil producer, but any increased supply could be easily offset by reduced production by OPEC. If tariffs are implemented, prices will get even worse, and there will also be retail closings and job loss. Proposed tax changes would seriously jeopardize Social Security and Medicare. People are struggling because of long term declines (since the 1970s) in wages versus inflation which have been aided by tax policies favoring the wealthy and deregulation.

    I no longer want to hear anything about the following from anyone in red areas (let’s keep this just to ten):

    1. Inflation or the cost of living – the government has few levers to control inflation but tariffs could make things a lot worse very quickly;
    2. Cost of housing – investor groups will continue to buy up housing stock and force up prices;
    3. FEMA or emergency aid – expect defunding or slow response time here;
    4. Cost of healthcare or lack of healthcare – expect to pay more for prescription drugs, copays or even lose coverage all together; don’t complain if a female family member dies due to a pregnancy complication;
    5. Quality of education – expect major defunding here;
    6. The environment – reductions to air and water quality standards, increased threats from climate change, defunding of national parks or turning them over to developers;
    7. Crime – you cannot support a convicted felon and traitor and claim you are actually concerned about crime or law and order;
    8. Immigration or border security- this is a manageable issue and not one that impacts the daily lives or welfare of most Americans; this is not really any issue in Pennsylvania where the largest group of immigrants are actually from China;
    9. Equity and fairness for all Americans – I know reds don’t care about this;
    10. Ethics or morality – read all of the above.

    I will be discontinuing travel into red counties and no longer be featuring them on my blog. People who have consistently shown so little empathy or compassion for others deserve no such courtesy in return. I am sick of the hypocrisy in areas that actually have high usage rates of public benefits but want to deny these benefits to others and high crime rates while falsely portraying this as an urban problem. These areas are losing population and will continue to do so until people learn to embrace change and tolerate people who are different from themselves.

    It appears that most people in this Commonwealth need to take a good hard look at themselves and their values and what a “Christian” actually is. May you be treated with all the care and concern that you have shown for others and feel the full force of the policies that you have chosen to put in place.

    Disrespectfully,

    Count me out

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